Meta is rehiring some of the thousands of workers it laid off

• Meta cut 25% of its workforce in a series of layoffs since November.
• As the company’s business performance improves, hiring is starting to pick up again.
• Many people let go by Meta are being rehired, although it might be for less pay than before.

Many people who have been laid off by Meta in recent months have received job offers from the company.

In recent weeks, the company formerly known as Facebook has gradually increased its hiring, particularly for engineering and technical positions. Any Meta employee who has been laid off since November has been allowed to reapply for open positions, typically through a dedicated “alumni portal.”

In multiple rounds of layoffs that ended in May, the company cut 25% of its workforce. According to three people familiar with the company, dozens of those workers have been rehired, mostly since June. Meta refused to comment for this article.

The majority of Meta is still in a hiring freeze, with head count allocation and hiring capacity reduced for the foreseeable future, in accordance with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s “Year of Efficiency.” Nonetheless, the company has quietly resumed hiring in certain areas. Meta’s all-important advertising business is improving as it retains more users and even successfully launches a Twitter rival with Threads on Instagram, which has pleased investors.

There are hundreds of available positions, the majority of which are in engineering for software, hardware, and AR/VR work, as well as mostly technical roles in infrastructure and data-center work. According to one of those familiar with the situation, little hiring appears to be taking place in business roles, an area of the company impacted by the most recent round of layoffs. Because Meta has drastically reduced its manager ranks, the majority of open positions are for individual contributors.

According to another source, Meta is looking for people with more experience and hiring fewer recent graduates and interns. People who were laid off at higher levels of engineering but had good performance reviews are most frequently rehired.

The company is also recruiting outside candidates, and those who have been laid off must go through an extensive interview process and compete against outsiders. Nonetheless, another person familiar with the situation stated that the hiring ratio is “ten to one” in favor of those who were recently laid off from Meta.

The decision to rehire some of the 20,000-plus Meta employees who were laid off is similar to what Elon Musk did in his first weeks as CEO of Twitter. In Musk’s case, he attempted to rehire people he’d laid off or fired for the same roles, only to discover after they’d left that they possessed the skills and experience Twitter required. According to people familiar with the situation at Meta, many people are being rehired for jobs they did not previously hold, sometimes at a lower salary or position.

One rehired Meta employee stated that despite being hired at the same level as his previous job, he accepted a 10% pay cut in total compensation. However, because Meta’s stock price is rising, the individual expects to return to their previous salary within a year.

Others are skeptical of Meta’s methods. Another layoffee who is looking for work said they recently saw a posting for their former job, but as a contractor position paying 20% less than their previous salary.